Scott Fusco '85-86 Named Among ECAC Hockey's 50 Best

ALBANY, N.Y.—Former Hobey Baker winner and two-time Olympian Scott Fusco '85-86, Harvard's all-time leading scorer, has been named one of the top 50 players in ECAC Hockey history, the league has announced.

As part of its 50th-anniversary celebration, ECAC Hockey has compiled a group of its top 50 players to recognize the storied history of the league and honor its significant players. The league released the ninth installment of five honorees Wednesday. The top 50 players were determined by a selection committee made up of former coaches and media members, who selected the honorees from 145 nominees (47 defensemen, 73 forwards, 25 goaltenders).

Fusco, who played on U.S. Olympic teams in 1984 and '88, is the fifth Harvard player named to the list. Older brother Mark Fusco '83, three-time All-American Joe Cavanagh '71, three-time all-league pick Gene Kinasewich '64 and NCAA title-winning captain Lane MacDonald '88-89 were previously selected.

The ninth segment of honorees is: All-American defenseman Reid Cashman of Quinnipiac; Tom Mellor, a defenseman from Boston College and the 1973 ECAC Player of the Year; defenseman Randy Velischek, who led Providence to two NCAA tournament appearances, and goaltender Terry Yurkiewicz, who backstopped Clarkson to its first ECAC regular-season and tournament titles in 1965 and '66, respectively.

Fusco, who totaled 240 points on 107 goals and a school-record 133 assists in 123 career games for the Crimson, missed the 1983-84 season to skate at the Sarajevo Olympics. He returned to Cambridge to earn first-team All-America honors and selection as ECAC Player of the Year in each of his final two seasons. As a senior, Fusco led the Crimson to an appearance in the NCAA title game and earned the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the national player of the year.

Fusco's Hobey Baker selection came three years after brother Mark earned the honor, making the duo the first set of brothers to claim college hockey's top individual honor. They are also the only brothers on the ECAC top-50 list. The brothers led Harvard to the ECAC title and the national title game in 1983, with Scott taking home NCAA All-Tournament honors.

The 90th captain of Harvard men's hockey and a U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer, Scott Fusco racked up seven first-team all-league selections, four from the Ivy League and three from the ECAC. He earned the Percy Award as Harvard's top rookie in 1981-82, took home two Tudor Cups as the Crimson's most valuable player and was the 1986 recipient of the Bingham Award as Harvard's top male athlete in any sport. He was later named to the ECAC All-Decade Team for the 1980s.

All current and former teams' impactful players were reviewed in comprising the list of candidates for the special team. Five players from the top 50 all-time team will be released every two weeks throughout the season leading up the league championship semifinals and final March 18-19 in Atlantic City, N.J.

The top 50 players were determined by a vote of a selection committee of 10 individuals: Joe Bertagna '73, former student-athlete at Harvard, former hockey commissioner of the ECAC and current commissioner of Hockey East; Ed Carpenter, former sports information director at Boston University; Bill Cleary '56, former student-athlete, head coach and director of athletics at Harvard; John Connolly, longtime sports reporter at the Boston Herald; Dan Fridgen, former student-athlete at Colgate and head coach at Rensselaer; Mike Gilligan, former head coach at Yale and Vermont; Lou Lamoriello, former student-athlete and head coach at Providence and current CEO, president and general manager of the New Jersey Devils; Mark Morris, former student-athlete at Colgate and former head coach at Clarkson; Tim Taylor '63, former student-athlete at Harvard and head coach at Yale; and Adam Wodon, editor of the College Hockey News website.